Issue #12 of Russ' Roundup is hot off the press. How does one properly evalute TagPro players?

1) The Eye Test

The #1 thing everyone does is trust their own personal eye test. And for me it's not so much watching replays, it's moreso how I feel when I play against this player. I play way too much TagPro in general and I can tell when someone is juking me and hard to tag. I also can tell when someone is really bad at positioning on defense or who is good at winning pups etc etc. Play a few 8 min games against someone and you start to get a feel for their skill level. Like I may not know exactly how OMB and tng interact with teammates and how they do or don't uplift their teams at the highest level of MLTP. But I do know that I simply cannot touch them 1v1.

2) Factor in ALL Available TP Data

Now more than ever people have plenty of information at their disposal. I like looking at ranked elo, win %, MLTP +/- etc. We also have TSCAR which seems do to a better job than GASP. Of course stats are very misleading if you played defense for a clearly stacked team you are going to have awesome stats. And if you played offense for a clearly bad team you will have garbage stats. You also have to factor in the players role and the team environment around them (i.e. A 4th ball going for 0 TCs putting up a 9 DGASP is way less impressive than a 1st ball going for 60 TCs and still putting up a winning record/successful season).

3) Miscellaneous Factors

This is where good vibes players get screwed. All things even remotely equal captains will favor players that won't cause headaches, won't tank team chemistry and won't be some sort of ban risk. In addition to "vibes" you have to factor in comm productivity, ping, playstyle, reliability and interpersonal relationships (i.e. This player doesn't like/want to play with this other player).

4) Gamma vs Oink Oink - FULL COMPARISON

Gamma vs Oink Oink is actually a really good comparison. Both have had insane seasons in novice (Gamma = S36… Oink = S39/S30). Both have played in minors, but have never been the star of the show 3rd/4th ball range. Both are kind of known as trolls and intentional or not both definitely benefit from tox tax. Part of it is that most of their teammates are in their mid to late 30s and no one has the energy to deal with somewhat immature kids in their early 20s. There's not that many Draymond Green types in minors... But you probably couldn't pair either of these players with like BTY or accel or someone mentally unstable like that.

5) GAMMA

s39 GASP = 9.50… +55... TSCAR 30.6… Ranked elo = 801.29… Stacked s39 team but was still asked to be the lead ball on defense with a rookie. Helped to have hue and Wraith (94 TCs) on offense. Kind of was scam traded to get on a much better team/situation.

6) OINK OINK

s39 GASP = 7.00… +21... TSCAR 21.4… Ranked elo = 1026.09… Really talented s39 team, but was kind of funky in hindsight. This team probably performs better if Vic and Tumblewood swap places. Vic on D With less TCs on O means he of course was running forward to grab at any opportunity. Tougher role for Oink to fit into.

7) Final Verdict

There's no doubt in my mind that Gamma has better comms and despite being kind of a character in discord he's pretty chill and a good teammate in VCs. Oink Oink is not going to talk or comm much, but at the same time Gamma is going to absolutely go hit an unnecessary bomb at times to fuck everything up. Oink's playstyle allows him to climb up the ranked leaderboard, but he is slightly hindered in a comp setting. With the way signups look right now I don't see either of these players being drafted higher than 3rd ball range. Personally I prefer Oink Oink's defensive playstyle more than Gamma's hair on fire style. But I wouldn't spend more than 10 TCs on either. Like if it's mid-draft are you going with spjork, beef, borgus, snowball or spheroid over these 2? Absolutely. And at that point it's all about fit with team building.